Intel to build new fab in Israel

Globes Online writes Intel made an agreement with the Israeli authorities to build a new fab in the country. The new fab will replace the aging Fab 8 in Jerusalem.

Intel will obtain $150 million in tax breaks over ten years. The tax break comes on top of the $525 million in grants from the Investment Promotion Center in exchange for the company's commitments to keep R&D and manufacturing in Israel. Intel undertook to employ at least 100 employees in manufacturing at the new fab.

Investment Promotion Center director Hezi Zaieg told the Finance Subcommittee that Intel would soon complete Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat, which will employ 2,200 people. More than NIS 4 billion has already been invested in this fab.

In late 2006, Intel announced that it would close Fab 8 because of the plunge in demand for its products in the global market, and that it would transfer the fab's 400 employees to the new Fab 28.

MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud), who initiated the Finance Committee meeting, was appointed chairman of the subcommittee that was charged with finding solutions to keep Intel's manufacturing activity in Jerusalem. Intel Israel general manager Alexander Kornhauser told the subcommittee that only an incentive big enough and competitive enough in the opinion of Intel's management in the US would persuade it to set up alternative manufacturing capacity in the city.